Dungiven

At the Foot of Benbradagh

Benbradagh rises straight out of the town, a whale-backed hill of 465 metres whose Irish name, Binn Bhradach, translates as "treacherous peak." From the 1940s to the early 1970s the United States military ran a communications base on its summit, with explosives stored underground; it was dismantled, and the hill went back to being a hill. Dungiven sits at its foot, where the rivers Roe, Owenreagh and Owenbeg come together before the Roe runs north-west toward Limavady and Lough Foyle.

The town lost its through-traffic in 2022, when the A6 bypass finally opened, forty-nine years after it was first sketched into a local plan. The main street is quieter for it. Dungiven is on the Belfast–Derry road, with Derry about seventeen miles west and Limavady ten or so to the north; Ulsterbus services run the corridor. There has been no railway since 1950.

Priory Stone and Ancient Woodland

On the edge of town, above the Roe, stands Dungiven Priory. The Augustinians built it in the twelfth century on much older foundations — an abbey may have stood here around 700 AD — and what survives is a ruined chancel and nave with a later tower house bolted on. Inside is the tomb of Cooey-na-Gall O'Cahan, an Ó Catháin chief who died in 1385: an armoured effigy laid beneath a carved stone canopy, the most celebrated medieval tomb in the county. The Ó Catháin clan ran this district from the twelfth century to the seventeenth.

The walking is the reason to base yourself here. South of the town, Banagher Glen is one of Ireland's finest stretches of ancient oak and ash woodland, with three marked trails running from about five kilometres to eleven. Bluebells come in spring; peregrines and buzzards work the slopes above. The Altnaheglish Dam sits in the glen, forty-two metres high, the tallest in Northern Ireland since it was finished in 1935. Further out, Roe Valley Country Park near Limavady follows the river through gorge and woodland past weirs, footbridges and O'Cahan's Rock, with a museum and café at the far end.

Across the Glenshane Pass

South-east, the A6 climbs over the Glenshane Pass, high blanket bog in the Sperrins that carries snow in winter. The pass takes its name from Shane Crossagh O'Mullan, an eighteenth-century highwayman. Near the top is the Ponderosa, which claims to be the second-highest public house on the island of Ireland at 288 metres — a useful stop on a cold crossing.

Games, Clubs and Local Names

Sport here is Gaelic. St Canice's have taken the Derry senior football title seven times; Kevin Lynch's Hurling Club, named after the hunger striker who died in 1981, holds a record twenty-two Derry hurling championships. The town has turned out its share of names, among them the folk singer Cara Dillon.

The Castle's Many Lives

Dungiven Castle, rebuilt by Robert Ogilby in the 1830s, has been flats, a wartime billet and a ballroom that once brought Joe Dolan and Tom Jones through its doors. Since 2015 it has been an Irish-language school, and the grounds now belong to the children walking up to it in the morning.